The brilliant but obscure composer Schneidermann has disappeared, having walked out of a matinee showing of Schindler’s List never to return, leaving behind only Laster, his best student and only friend. Lest his mentor be totally forgotten, Laster rushes the stage during a performance of Schneidermann’s magnum opus and forces the audience to listen as he speaks of his mentor until dragged off by the police.

This is the entire plot, such as it is, of Joshua Cohen’s debut novel. A cadenza, he tells us in the preface, is an improvisatory solo passage near the end of the first movement of a concerto, one designed to showcase the virtuosity of the musician while exploring the themes of the main work. Laster’s hours-long testament to his vanished Schneidermann is the cadenza of the novel’s title.

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—Kevin Dole 2